Opera for One: Rigoletto

2019Arts Centre Melbourne, State Theatre

At the Duke’s infamous parties, one man’s words light the darkness
with a sinister glitter. Among the glamorous girls and greasy gangsters, Rigoletto
serves his master with sharp wits and averted eyes.

He’s hideous. He’s hated. He’s untouchable. But in this shimmering
world of secrets and seduction, can he keep the one he loves most safe?

From the moment he wrote it, Verdi knew he had a hit on his hands. The story had
everything: royalty, loyalty, deformity, devotion, lust and revenge.

And the music? The music was sensational, so full of hummable tunes that Verdi
demanded complete secrecy from his premiere cast. The tenor was forbidden from even
whistling the catchy ‘La donna è mobile’ outside of rehearsals.

The morning after Rigoletto’s triumphant premiere, that melody rang
out in the streets: a hit for ever after. The title character Verdi called the “greatest
creation” in the history of theatre had found a home in a masterpiece of music.

Elijah Moshinsky’s much-loved production of Rigoletto returns to
the Arts Centre Melbourne stage, complete with its glamorous La Dolce Vita-inspired
sets and costumes, and scene-stealing car. The revolving dollhouse style set gives
a cinematic detail to each scene.

Andrea Licata returns to conduct an exciting cast of international and homegrown
stars. Melbourne soprano Stacey Alleaume makes her debut as Gilda with Mongolian baritone
Amartuvshin Enkhbat, who won the Audience Prize at the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of
the World competition, as Rigoletto, and remarkable young Armenian tenor Liparit Avetisyan
sings the Duke of Mantua.

Production Partner

The Duke of Mantua lives only for pleasure of the female kind. No man’s wife
or daughter is out of his reach, and while the Duke seduces their women, Rigoletto
mocks their misfortune.

The men of the court want vengeance, and when they hear Rigoletto has a beautiful
woman hidden away, they plot to abduct her.

The woman is Rigoletto’s daughter, who despite his best efforts to keep her
hidden, has already caught the eye of the lustful Duke. He pays a visit to seduce
the beautiful Gilda. Before he can complete his mission, Gilda is kidnapped by the
mob of men, who take her to the Duke’s palace for his amusement. The distraught
Rigoletto vows to take vengeance.

But Gilda loves the Duke, in spite of everything, and is prepared to go to any
lengths to save him from her father’s wrath.

Love and vengeance meet in the darkness as the opera draws to its dramatic, devastating
conclusion.

Act I

Scene i. The Duke's palace

For three months the Duke of Mantua has been lusting after a lovely girl. He has
found out where she lives, and that a mysterious man visits her every night, but he
has no idea who she is. One woman is as good as another for the Duke, and when the
Countess Ceprano catches his eye he sweeps her away before her husband's eyes.

Rigoletto cruelly taunts Ceprano about the Duke seducing his wife. Marullo rushes
in with a diverting bit of gossip: Rigoletto has a lover! Ceprano enlists his friends
in a plot to wreak revenge on Rigoletto. They have all felt the lash of the hunchback's
tongue, and they are delighted at the chance to pay him back.

Monterone storms in, accusing the Duke of seducing his daughter. Rigoletto mocks
the old man savagely, but Monterone will not be silenced. The furious Duke has him
arrested, and as he is led away he curses both the Duke and Rigoletto.

Scene ii. Rigoletto's house

As Rigoletto hurries home he meets Sparafucile, a hired killer who engages his
sister, Maddalena, to lure his victims to their death - a fateful and disturbing encounter.

Rigoletto broods on his likeness to the killer: both are paid to destroy others,
Rigoletto with words, Sparafucile with weapons. His mind is filled with Monterone's
curse, and he rails against his deformity and vilifies the Duke's friends who
hate and fear him.

His daughter Gilda runs to meet him, and inside the house he forgets his fear and
depression. Gilda begs him to tell her about her mother, but he will say only that
she loved him despite his deformity. Knowing that the Duke's friends will punish
him if they can, he orders Gilda never to go out alone. While he is repeating his
warning to Gilda's minder, Giovanna, he thinks he hears a noise in the street
and rushes outside to investigate. The Duke, who has been waiting outside, immediately
slips into the courtyard, bribes Giovanna and hides. Rigoletto comes back, and the
Duke is amazed to find that Gilda is the hunchback's daughter.

Rigoletto leaves, and Gilda confesses that she loves the young man who has been
following her. The Duke steps out, saying that he is a student called Gualtier Malde
and that he loves her. Their duet is interrupted when Gilda hears footsteps in the
street and thinks it is her father. She makes the Duke leave and floats off to bed,
rapturously repeating 'Gualtier Malde'.

The footsteps in the street belong to the Duke's friends, who have found the
house and are plotting to abduct Rigoletto's supposed lover. When the hunchback
comes back they blindfold him, pretending that they are kidnapping Ceprano's wife,
and trick him into helping them to capture his own daughter. They kidnap Gilda, and
Rigoletto tears off the blindfold and discovers how he has been deceived. Gilda is
gone.

Act II

The palace

The Duke is angry and fearful: he has been back to Rigoletto's house and found
it deserted. He is sure that Gilda has been kidnapped, and for the first time his
emotions are aroused as well as his carnal appetite. His friends come to tell him
how they have tricked the hunchback, and the Duke realises that Rigoletto's 'lover'
is Gilda and that they have abducted her and brought her to his palace. He rushes
away to find her.

Rigoletto enters, frantic with grief and searching desperately for his daughter.
The Duke's friends will not help him, and suddenly he realises that Gilda must
be with the Duke. In despair and rage he turns on them. He curses and pleads with
them, and reveals that the girl that they thought was his lover is really his daughter.
Gilda enters. Rigoletto is ready to believe it was all a harmless joke, but Gilda's
distress is too deep. He sends the others away, and his daughter's story convinces
him that the Duke has raped her. But she is still desperately in love with the Duke.

Monterone passes on his way to prison, and says bitterly that his curse has not
worked, since the Duke is still alive and happy. Rigoletto undertakes to avenge them
both, though Gilda implores him to be merciful.

Act III

Sparafucile's inn

Rigoletto engages the services of Sparafucile to kill the Duke. He then brings
Gilda to a ramshackle inn to witness the Duke, dressed as a soldier, making love to
Maddalena. Gilda watches in horror as he seduces Maddalena. Rigoletto instructs Gilda
to dress as a man and go to Verona to wait for him. Rigoletto arranges with Sparafucile
to collect the Duke's body at midnight.

But Maddalena has fallen for the sexy man upstairs in her bed. Kill the hunchback
instead, she suggests. Sparafucile is outraged by his wayward sister, and while the
two of them are arguing Gilda returns to the inn and overhears them. Sparafucile proposes
a compromise: if a stranger calls at the inn before midnight, Sparafucile will kill
him instead of the soldier.

As an act of desperation Gilda decides to commit suicide by giving her life for
the Duke's. She knocks at the door, Maddalena extinguishes the light, and Sparafucile
kills her as she enters the bar. Rigoletto comes back, and Sparafucile gives him a
sack that he says contains the Duke's body. Rigoletto gloats for a while over
his sinister treasure. But just as he is about to push it into the river he hears
the Duke singing his song about fickle women. Appalled, he tears open the sack and
finds his daughter. She is still alive. Asking him to bless her and forgive the Duke,
she dies.